I love, love, love blonde brick. It has such a lovely golden color. Are you sure you can't work with it instead of painting over it? It has a great midcentury style to it that I find appealing.

OMG, I am SO glad I stumbled on this site..the idea of the contrasting cove in that half bath is PERFECT ! (Guess I'm braindead, I should have thought of that!)now I feel less guilty about changing that mugly floor.. and I am so grateful to have found likeminded crackpots like myself. This house has some sort of a spell over us, and the 'average' person looks askance at us..We are seriously thinking of just selling our big 'new' house and small farm and just moving to town. Most of our friends are horrified..imagine, leaving our lovely new home recently completed to move to that sadly in need of 'updating' ranch in the 'old neighborhood'... This little home is just that..a home..all the years of love and care create an 'aura' and soul that no new house can ever give, at least for decades to come. I am a house addict anyway, so 'feel' is paramount to me. I AM excited. and really just want to wait on most everything to let IT tell me what needs done. other than that kitchen floor that is!..I actually like the countertops (can't believe I'm saying that after all the granites, natural stones, etc etc everyone craves!)..they are S O L I D...and feel it. ditto on the cabs..real heartpine knotty and put together like a cabinet maker should. I found a few really nice trivets in the cabs so it's obvious how they survived so well all these years. I am so anxious to set it all up, and grateful there is little to do.. Can't wait to see the new floor installed (hopefully by end of next week) will post oodles of pics! I do agree that appliances, houses, cars, and the like are nothing today like they were 50 years ago. We were just saying that very same thing as my fancy dancy 2 year old front load energy efficient, 'green' operating dryer conks out. that's AFTER the 18 mo Samsung hoopdy doopdy French door fridge got hauled off, and the discovery that my dual fuel range top does NOT raise up for cleaning....and all the problems with our beautiful 'new house' from framing to electrical..I know 'every' generation gripes about the quality of the new, but I truly feel this time it's different...since abut 1970 when plastic tubs took over..... hurry and up and finish, regardless of quality... no wonder we kooks love the old stuff...it just FEELS right. am pretty decided on a VCT in kitchen/laundry/half bath, creamy white ground with brick checkerboard, fading to mostly creamy into the adjoining den.am going to use MORE of the bricky color in the kitchen, less in the laundy so the fade to the den will be subtle. .am going to take more pics today....those rooms don't need any wall paint or treatment..and if WE live there right away I am keeping the light fixtures that are original to the house..thank you all for sharing this with me! and I love reading about others' adventures as well... we can't seem to stay away from the place.. p.s. you can't believe what my husband found in the shop...all intact, a myriad of tools, weeny jars of parts and stuff, all perfectly arranged...and we have an attached 'hobby room'and separate store room, along with a lovely screened and stormed sun porch.....and then there's the garden shed, all equipped............and those heavenly towering oak trees........... [IMG]http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/1962/braggrearyardtohouse.jpg[/IMG] By [URL=http://profile.imageshack.us/user/ancientoaks]ancientoaks[/URL] at 2010-11-28 [IMG]http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/878/braggeaststreet.jpg[/IMG] By [URL=http://profile.imageshack.us/user/ancientoaks]ancientoaks[/URL] at 2010-11-28 did I do this right????? grr!

Thank you both for commenting. I wish I knew how to draw the original plan! I attached some photos below to try to show the house layout. Suezbell: there are two existing bathrooms: one in the master suite (which he didn't bother to draw in as we're not doing anything with it) and one in the middle of the house. It DOES have a window because there is a weird "courtyard" where Judy's new room will be. I wonder if the original owners just kept adding on to what may have been a 2 bedroom house, which resulted in this wacky meandering floor plan. I agree, having the new 1/2 bath right by the front entrance (and on the southern wall with the best views of our 6 acre lot) isn't ideal. I would have preferred to have it on the western wall near the back. No, that's not a hallway but the narrow stairwell up to the 4th bedroom (it pivots to the right after you enter the doorway). There is a door to the exterior "courtyard" area right before the stairwell that isn't on this new plan. No, there is no current outdoor kitchen. We have a BBQ grill, smoker, and pizza oven (all individual components) on the eastern side of the house by a deck. The idea was to move it all closer to the kitchen. There is actually a poorly constructed open air carport where the "new" outdoor patio would be as the former seller had his handyman build it. We'd demolish that carport roof and change it to an open air patio since there's already a 4 car garage to the west of the house. FYI, the extreme angle of that proposed patio area is due to an existing concrete retaining wall as we're backed up to a hill. The staircase is actually in the narrow hallway between the western Kid's bedroom and Judy's room. The one room upstairs is directly above the western Kid's bedroom. This was the weird "add-on" 15-20 years ago (actual time is unknown but it was 2 owners ago). palimpsest: the blue is all existing hallway! Right now, it takes a while to walk from the kitchen (far western wall) all the way to my eldest daughter's room (the yellow to blue path!). Sadly, this house layout is very peculiar and weird. I'm almost tempted to demolish the whole thing and start over, but the 4 existing bedrooms are large, have brand new lighting and windows, and we have to live somewhere while the kitchen is redone... The new plan has an entry, 1/2 bath, and laundry where there is currently just windows and a set of French doors. The man who sold us the house changed the original front entry to a giant stained glass window (so we have a hallway to nowhere) and used the French doors as the main entry. See photos from the listing below!

Dark gray or medium gray for the stucco above the brick - yes. Paint garage door to match the stucco color you ultimately choose. Paint your front door an accent color. Choose your accent color after you have painted the stucco and garage door. Your green front door might even work as is depending upon the stucco color you select. I like how these colors work with the brick on the insp pic below. Shutters - no. Remove them. You don't need them. Here is a brief article why they won't ever work on those windows https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/residential-architecture-101-shutters/ Landscaping would really help with your curb appeal. It makes a huge difference on how your home is presented to the world. Here are some landscaping insp pics below to get your started: ^Wide planting beds and wide walkway leading to your home (not right up against your home).